The Heart of the Sea Sleeps in Man
by Miffy Buttons
Summary: Storms at sea will often bring strange things to the surface, but the mushi that Ginko and Adashino encounter will force them to deal with more than they might be able to handle. Rated T for vague violence, 'scary' happenings, and mild cussing.
1. Suifu No Sainan

**Chapter 1 - Sailor's Bane**

* * *

From Adashino's Journal:

_What they tell me now is that the children had been on the beach, bringing fishing boats higher ashore. But during a storm that we all knew was going to be that bad…? I can't understand why there was still _anyone _on the shore at that point._

_By my own guesses, this may have been one of the worse storms of the summer. Ashika-san tells me the villagers are calling it "Suifu no Sainan". Though, given the events that happened within the storm, I would think they'd give it a name that sounded more…imposing. Or at least something that would do justice to its intensity. After everything that happened that night, after what they saw… Well, this is just my own opinion. But I digress…_

_The children. The children were on the beach, and a sudden wave had pulled them out to sea. Suifu no Sainan and the drowning children, were only the beginnings of our troubles that night._

* * *

The rain was at his back in a deluge, soaking him to the bone. At first it meant nothing, easily ignored. It was only rain. Only the feel of a thousand tapping fingers, and the cold, wet chill. But rain could be relentless, and soon his back felt like it was being pummeled. The skin turned raw. Soon the wind drove each drop into his skin like a tiny hammer, the fabric of his kimono giving no protection.

It felt like glass, driving itself into his eyes, biting at his arms.

This would leave bruises, he was sure. But bruises could not make any of them turn back now. They had to rescue the children, before the storm swallowed them whole.

Row on.

Ginko shouted something from the prow of the longboat, but the wind stole it from his lips. All sound save for the howling of the storm, was lost at sea.

* * *

From Adashino's Journal:

_I realize now, perhaps all too late at this point, that it may have been some warning he was yelling. Did he see what was ahead of us? Actually, was it possible at all to see anything through that storm?_

_Still, I catch myself wondering if hearing him would have made any difference._

_Probably not. The people here, they see things through to the end, or they die. That's just how life has always been for them._

* * *

Adashino could remember clearly, the oars were moving through the waves in slow motion, it seemed. The water was…thick, congealed. It was straining against the fishing boats like a backwards current. That was how it looked from a distance, anyway…

_No_, he had thought, _its just me, I'm getting worn out._

He could feel a burning in his arms, and it was already snaking its way across his shoulders. Perhaps there was nothing strange about the water. Perhaps his boat was the only one slowing down, after all.

_Don't stop. Keep rowing. Those children are as good as dead if any of us give up now._

_We almost had them._

* * *

Ginko was leaning over the edge of the boat, trying to stay aboard as waves thrashed beneath them. His grip on the wood turned his knuckles white.

One more pull of the oars. Just one. Adashino grit his teeth, forced his arms to move.

Pull!

And then the children were in reach! Adashino could recognize them now; siblings from Yajuu-san's house; the daughter, Saijouko, and the youngest son, Jiku. Somehow, miraculously, they still managed to keep their heads above the waves. One of them even smiled at the sight of the boat.

But that much, at least, could be expected of children who grew up in a fishing village.

Ginko reached out, his steady hand around the wrist of the girl in an instant. He lifted her small body from the water with one arm, so strong, and pulled her into the longboat. Adashino took hold of the boy, lifting him aboard as well.

* * *

From Adashino's Journal:

_It's important to mention, because of my line of profession, that neither of the children were too worse for wear. Certainly they were tired after swimming against a storm, and there was a bit of seawater coughed up. But Yajuu-san has always made sure that his offspring are strong swimmers. Well, as a rule of thumb, it's like that with everyone. I don't honestly think that anyone here would be so easily taken by the sea. There would have to be much more involved than simply getting snatched up by some current. Much more. Especially taking into consideration that half the village would be out there as a rescue party._

_The temperament of the ocean is just something we've all learned to live with. But for outsiders…_

_Although, what I'm writing about isn't meant to regale any 'usual standards'. I simply mean to give a basis for comparison. The event I record here had been by no means a typical occurrence for anyone._

* * *

A great wave rose up to the left of the longboat. It swelled, climbed, until it towered over the fishermen; a black monster outlined by the storm's lightning. It hung over them for what seemed like eternal seconds, unnaturally motionless. No one else understood it, but that was when Adashino realized…And he could see it confirmed on Ginko's face; This was no wave. This was no reasonable part of the ocean at all.

He could almost see it contemplating, were such a thing possible; how heavily would it crush down upon them, the tiny men below?

_A mushi_, he thought, strange clarity lapping over his horror. _A mushi in the ocean, like that swamp…_

"…-shino!"

He broke from his stunned thoughts, turning away from the towering liquid thing before them. Ginko had been yelling at him.

"Adashino, the oars! Row, damn it! Row away from it, now!" His voice had panic in it. Adashino's stomach tightened.

The mushi still towered there, black and massive. But now it had begun to lean steadily forward. Slowly, horribly, it was falling towards all their little boats. It was going to crush them.

Adashino grabbed the oars and pulled, pulled so hard his muscles screamed. He ignored it.

Furiously, and in sudden, total panic, he fought to steer the boat away.

No speed in the world could move them away fast enough, it seemed.

Ginko stood up in the prow, precariously balanced again the tumult of waves. The wind ripped at his hair and shirt, rain streaming into that ghostly eye socket. Lightning went jagged across the sky, silhouetting his body. For a moment, Adashino thought he was looking at the vision of a drowned man. Suddenly, he felt sick.

Saijouko was half-standing against Ginko. She clung desperately to his waist, and had been pulled up when he stood. Skinny fingers dug into his back. It was hard to tell if she meant to keep herself, or her rescuer in the boat.

The mushishi noticed none of this; not the bite of the water, nor the grip of the girl's hands.

They had to escape! All those villagers… He had no idea what this mushi would do to them, but he knew that here was a creature that would suffer no survivors.

Hands moved up to cup around his mouth, and Ginko yelled out across the water,

"Move away! That thing's going to take you all under! Get the hell back to shore!"

Perhaps the others heard him. Perhaps it was fear that finally got them moving. Either way, the longboats began to slide away from the path of that looming monster.

All too late.

A sound rumbled through the liquid mass, like an explosion heard from underwater. It rolled throughout the creature in deep, bass echoes, over and over. It was the mushi's voice.

Every man froze in terror at the sound of it.


	2. Umi No Mushi

**Chapter 2 - Mushi of the Sea**

* * *

The mushi seemed to ripple once, a part of it heaving upwards one final time. And then the entirety of it came raging down on the fishermen. Against the dark sky, its form curved like a giant arch. Adashino thought, for a moment, that he could see glowing things swimming deep inside it. They shifted in unison, reminding him of schools of fish. They glimmered. It looked like a curve of the night sky, making a river through the storm.

A night sky that was yards, then feet, from crushing them all.

Across from him, Adashino thought he saw Ginko make some gesture, shout something desperate. And then, as if struck against some invisible wall, the mushi changed direction. It jerked to its left, missing the heads of fishermen by mere inches.

Surprise plastered itself over Adashino's face, and he heard Jiku whisper,

"N-no way…"

The mushi skimmed wildly across the surface of the water then, darting left, right, no particular pattern or path. Or so it seemed at the time. But Ginko saw its path. Ginko knew exactly what was about to happen.

He turned, white hair lashing across his cheek. The girl's hands were pried from his shirt his shirt, and he pushed her- No, he practically _threw_ her –into the doctor's arms.

Adashino barely had time to look up, to meet that fierce green stare. But in that moment, in that brief eye contact, he understood as well what the mushi's path was. His heart sped up.

"…Ginko! GINKO!"

And in the next second, that watery creature was upon them. It overtook the front half of the longboat. Boards splintered and pieces were carried away. Its voice shook the doctor and the children to their bones. The chill of its surface frosted seawater to their lips.

They clung to each other as the boat was battered, praying it wouldn't capsize. And miraculously, it never did. The children cried, faces buried in the older man's kimono. But Adashino himself couldn't look away. He couldn't take his eyes off that mushi, receding now, back into the depths.

The mushi that had pulled Ginko overboard. Pulled him down out of sight, beneath the clamoring waters.

The storm continued on.

The fishermen eventually came to the aid of the doctor and children.

"Ginko…"


	3. Mezameru

**Chapter 3 - Awaken**

**

* * *

**

Ginko awoke to a deep chill that penetrated down to the bones. Something was pushing on his ears and chest. It was heavy. He had never felt anything so heavy before. It made his ears ring deafeningly, tried to force the air from his lungs. Holding his breath made it worse. The pressure only bore down on him harder still; pushing and pushing…That ringing sound became unbearable. And then deep down, by the eardrum, something seemed to snap. A sharp, sudden pain. He opened his mouth to cry out, and the air escaped him completely.

He began sinking faster now.

_…Sinking?_

Eyelids flew open, a sharp chill against his vision, and he remembered. Yes, the storm, the ocean. This crushing feeling was the water pressure. But…he could swear he was looking at the sky. All those stars…

No, not stars. The mushi.

And he wasn't sinking; he was being _pulled_ down.

_Damn it._

* * *

From Adashino's Journal:

_It must have been a few days after that incident when Ashika-san came to me, suggesting we perform a burial ceremony._

_I sent him home._

_At the time, I really did think that Ginko was dead. Mushishi or no, there was little chance of survival in a situation like that. It didn't make the concept any easier to swallow. But then, what does? Still, regardless of what I believed, I wouldn't allow a ceremony. 'One day, maybe', I kept telling myself. Though in all honestly, if things had turned out differently, I probably would never have come to that decision._

_Then, a full week later, Ginko's body washed ashore._

_It was actually Yajuu-san and Jiku who found him, of all people. They brought him to me._

_Actually, I was surprised. With the amount of time that had passed since the storm, one could only expect a corpse to be bloated and fish-eaten. But it wasn't so. Somehow that body was still alive…_

_Ah…I say here, 'that body,' instead of 'Ginko,' because while it breathed and had a pulse, what was found on the beach bore nothing in the semblance of that man's soul._

_

* * *

_

There was no sound now. Ginko's ears throbbed. But he could feel the mushi's voice. The deep bass of it reverberated from everywhere. He wanted to breathe in, he wanted air. His fingers twitched as the last of the oxygen was pulled from his bloodstream.

The pinpoints of light around him blurred, and then doubled. Then they receded from his vision.

Something cold wormed its way into his throat, and the cold spread throughout his body.

That was all.

* * *

"I don't get it…" Yajuu was musing half-heartedly to Adashino, watching the man work, "I don't care what kind of a person you are, it just isn't natural, coming out of the sea alive…ish, like that."

Despite the fact that he was getting no response what so ever, the fisherman had been talking since he first arrived at the doctor's door. He was hoping, somewhere in his mind, that Adashino could offer some answer that might calm his thoughts.

"Aah, I forget how many days it's been exactly- Too long, probably, for someone to survive, even if they'd happened to find something to keep 'em afloat. A man would be dead in three days, lost to the waters like that. Nothing to drink…"

"Yajuu-san…"

"I mean, on top of that, it's obvious the man's drowned. I hate to say it so bluntly, sensei… But can't you hear that? That's not normal breathing. His lungs are full of water!"

"Yajuu!"

The informal tone got its point across. The fisherman fell silent, somewhat flustered. Adashino sat back with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose between forefinger and thumb. The fingers of his other hand rested idly across Ginko's wrist. Between the two of them, only Yajuu seemed to notice that small contact.

Bitter irritation had put creases on the doctor's brow.

"I'm sorry… but I'm perfectly aware of what a dead, drowned person should and shouldn't be doing. Still, it's obvious that…that he's survived, somehow. I just need to figure out what made that happen."

Yajuu looked down, lips pressed together tightly. A movement caught his eye then, and when he looked there was the faintest hint of a tremor in the younger man's hand. He kept his gaze on the floor.

"Adashino-sensei, I'm a straightforward person, so even though it might be harsh, I'll say this… We both understand that this situation is completely irrational. But only one of us seems to grasp that while the body _is_ 'living' somehow, Ginko-san is definitely _not_."

* * *

_Above him, there was a sky, and nightime filled it to the brim. Clouds revolved through its dome-like structure with graceful speed; distant gray things that completed their course a thousand times over._

_Beneath his feet was spread a fabric. He could feel it shifting under him, sighing against his weight. The moonlight came from the place where his feet touched it, and when he looked closer he could see distant creatures moving through the threads._

_The sound of a biwa called up the sun, and the sky turned green. It was a good color. The color of languid summers, of pine and bamboo. The color of a warm sea._

_He could feel it in his breath, that languid pine sea… He could feel it curling warm fingers into his chest…_

Adashino woke suddenly, consciousness surfacing so fast that it left his heart pounding. The dim room sharpened around him momentarily, then relaxed into somewhat softer edges. The dark didn't mix well with his bad vision.

He exhaled shakily before realizing his breath was a bit racy. There was sweat beading at his temples as well… And his hands hurt. How long had he been gripping the bedding like that? Why did he feel so shaken up?

"Was I dreaming…?" He whispered the question out loud, and startled himself.

What was this feeling? It was like something horrible was behind him, but his back was against the futon.

_Was it a nightmare?_

And then the clarity of being fully awake kicked in, and Adashino uncurled his fingers from the edge of the futon. Reaching up, he rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms.

* * *

From Adashino's Journal:

_For a few days, nothing of note happened. When Ginko's body was brought to my house, I did what I knew best to revive him. Yajuu assisted me for that first day, fetching books and things. But the strange condition didn't change in the least, and eventually I ran out of ideas for treating it._

_I suppose it wouldn't hurt to say here that I didn't honestly expect any of my efforts to make a difference._

_The body was laid out in a back room, like a sleeping person. I couldn't think of what else to do at the time. It was that, or throw him back into the sea. I wasn't going to bury him._

_So for the time the body 'slept' in that room, there was no change. And all I could do was look in from time to time, and pretend that I thought saving Ginko was possible._

_'Not alive,' he had said to me once. 'And not dead, either.' This was how he explained mushi to me. That was when I still knew so little about them._

* * *

It was still very early morning, by Adashino's guesses. It would be a few hours still before the sun came up, but he was unable to fall back to sleep. Something kept nagging at the back of his mind, waking him just as he would drift off. He couldn't remember what exactly… It felt like something he must have been dreaming, but there were no memories of it that he could recall. It might have been important. Or maybe not.

He was disgruntled with the predicament, but gave in to the fact that he wasn't getting anymore sleep today. Might as well start getting some things done.

He changed, pulling his kimono over his shoulders, and tied his obi messily. He'd fix it properly later, when other people were actually around to care about his appearance.

The hallways of his home were dark, offering little or no light by which to see. But a lamp was somewhat unnecessary for him, as he could find his way around the rooms and hallways with the ease of years-old familiarity.

He found himself walking to the back room, where Ginko's body lay. Which was odd, because he had meant to go outside.

"Hm." His voice was scratchy from having just woken up. "I must still be half-asleep..."

This was a lie, but Adashino had been telling himself more and more of those as time went on. He lied when he said he would 'think of something eventually'. He lied when he thought Ginko might still be saved. And he lied, every time he stepped into the room where his friend both was, and wasn't.

There was only one phrase in his mind that was truthful to his feelings, and if he dared admit to that… Well… he couldn't do it. He stubbornly refused, just as he refused the villagers every time they insisted on a funeral.

'I'm giving up,' had to be forced from his mind a thousand times a day, it seemed.

A sharp chill pulled him from his thoughts. Before him was the door to the back room.

The air that leaked through the doorframe was cold, and left a faint frost on the wood. Sharp eyes narrowed with wary suspicion.

"The hell…?" His breath could be seen in the air.

He had to cover his hand with the sleeve of his kimono when he opened the door, so his fingers wouldn't stick to the frost. The door crackled as it slid open.

A sharp draft rushed from the room, cold air escaping into the hallway. It ruffled his hair, sending goosebumps prickling up his arms and neck. He stepped back from the door immediately, hands up as though to ward away the chill, and tried to see into the dark room.

At first he only saw the black rectangle of the doorway, set against the slightly less dark hall. Then, as his eyes adjusted, the futon came into view, and…_something_…that was hunched over it. The something lifted its head, and Adashino inhaled sharply, backing away so fast that his back hit the wall behind him. In the room there was low sound, like a sigh, and cold air rushed out again into the hall. Frost spider-webbed itself over one of Adashino's cheeks.

From the dark, the thing looked up at him with one seagreen, slightly phosphorescent eye.

The doctor covered his mouth with a cold hand, eyes going wide with something akin to horror. "W-what…What the hell is in there…?"

The voice that came back to him almost sounded like Ginko's. Only, he could hear the water in the throat, and the deep reverberation that lay beneath those words.

The sound of it sent a tremor through his body.

"Come here."


	4. Koi to Karada, Hebi to Hae

**Chapter 4 - The Fish and the Body, The Snake and the Fly**

* * *

It was a disturbing and powerful curiosity that finally had Adashino stepping away from his place in the hallway. Even now, the strange allure of the creature called 'mushi' had not lessened in this circumstance. His appetite for the abnormal was what pulled him forward, and he was sickened that _that_ would be a stronger driving force than the wish to save his friend.

Every muscle in him seemed to go taught as he passed through the doorway. Half out of fear, and half out of anticipation, it seemed that every inch of him was alert. One step; his heartbeat quickened. Another; his breath caught in his chest.

That unnerving gaze was still on him, unblinking, demanding, but eternally patient.

A floorboard creaked beneath Adashino's weight, the wooden keen accompanied by the crackle of frost. Tensed as he was, Adashino jumped at the sound. He jerked backwards a step, adrenaline instantly searing through his nerves like an electric shock. He realized only afterwards what it was that had startled him.

Heart pounding now, the young doctor tried shakily to catch his breath, to calm down.

_Come on... Ginko handles this sort of thing all the time. Imagine if he knew you were reacting this way..._

But before, even Ginko had paled at the sight of the mushi they saw during the storm... There was a reason people needed to have reverence for these creatures. Adashino had learned that before.

A strange noise broke the heavy quiet. It sounded as though someone were clapping the flat of their palm against a wet surface.

Across the room, the shoulders of Ginko's body were jerking slightly, and there was an unnerving smile at the corners of his lips.

Adashino peered warily at the figure, unsure of what the strange actions meant, and too afraid now to move any closer.

Then, with a sickening thought, he realized what that sound was supposed to be... And knowing made it all the worse, made the figure that used to be Ginko seem all the more horrific.

Stricken, he lowered himself to his knees before his legs could give out.

It was...

It was laughing at him.

He should never have let his fascination get the better of him... This felt dangerous. There was something horribly old and predatory here, and he had placed himself right in front of it. He had brought it into his house.

* * *

From Adashino's Journal:

_As a medic, I feel an obligation to make a short record of the situation that this...awakening of sorts had put my surroundings into. To begin with, there was the cold. I suppose that was my first tip-off to what exactly was happening, but at the time I hadn't bothered to think about it... Actually, it's interesting to note that while there was enough of a chill to put frost on a person's skin, it didn't end up producing any damage that generally comes with freezing._

_Along with that was the strange moistness in the air. When it comes to a simple matter of humidity, that sort of thing affects the air everywhere, unless means are taken to avoid that kind of weather. But in this situation the 'humidity' as it were, was confined solely to the room where Ginko's body was kept._

_Lastly, was the taste of salt. Every breath I took, it was as though I had just drunk a mouthful of saltwater. The very ocean, it seemed, had clamored to Ginko and followed him to my home, where it infested the very air._

_Being near him was like diving underwater in mid-winter._

* * *

How had he finally approached it? He couldn't remember.

First he had been cowering on his knees, and now... What transition had brought him right to its side? What madness?

_I'm a fool._

Adashino thought it over and over to himself, but it didn't change that even now, in the face of something more than he could understand, he couldn't stop himself.

The mushi watched him, predatory and silent. It waited for something...

"Gin...Ginko?" Adashino had to fight to find his voice; it felt locked in his throat.

The mushi made no response. It only watched. Only waited. And it seemed so amused.

But surely... despite all the hopelessness he felt...surely Ginko was still within that body. Wasn't he?

In his fear, Adashino found himself hoping desperately that this were somehow true.

Trembling, the young doctor reached out, fingertips seeking assurance through some form of contact. Now there were only inches between them; that distance growing smaller with every passing heartbeat. The air around Ginko's body was frigid. The chill of it seemed to bite all the way through Adashino's palm.

Still, he reached further.

Inches shrank away, becoming centimeters, becoming millimeters, until he finally...finally his hand touched...

"Gin-"

A sharp movement, so fast that Adashino wasn't sure it had happened. And then shock. His entire body felt it suddenly, so acute and forceful that his vision reeled.

The mushi, within an instant, had clamped a hand around Adashino's wrist. Its grip was more solid than Ginko would have been capable of. More than any man, really, was capable of.

But more crippling than the severe pressure of that hand, was the cold. It was like direct contact with dry ice. Or more like swallowing it. This cold was penetrating, and Adashino could feel it taking over his wrist, his hand...and then up his arm, so cold it burned.

Soon it was in his chest and throat.

* * *

The mushi drew the man close to it, pulling him by the arm. With a phosphorescent stare, it examined him, half hungrily, half curious. It looked at his arm, and his clothing, and his hair. Using the verbal inventory within the body it had stolen, it found words for all these things. Face. Eyes. Skin. Pulse.

Warmth.

It was drawn most to warmth. Moving closer still, it sought more...

* * *

There was no thought involved anymore. Adashino wasn't capable of it. The cold and the fear and the pain all had stricken him silent and immobile. Now he could only stare, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, and shivering violently. Instinct had long since given up on screaming the command 'run!' to his brain.

The mushi was practically on top of him now. Its breath poured a chill into the air that put frost on every inch of Adashino's skin.

It continued to look him over, to seek out...something. Something...

...Could it be that his blood was freezing? His thundering heartbeat felt so painful, suddenly...


	5. Atatameru, Yowameru

**Chapter 5 - Warmth and Weakness**

* * *

From Adashino's Journal:

_I don't suppose I was entirely in my right mind when I entered that room. So much had happened, and I had thought so much was lost. At the time, everything seemed to make sense... But looking back, I was just being foolish. Ginko would say so as well, I'm sure._

_Perhaps I was grieving, or perhaps I was just too eager for some kind of finality, some resolution. But all the same, I had a creature before me; A mushi I _knew_ was dangerous. A mushi I had personally seen claim someone's life. And still, with hardly a second thought, I put myself right it its path._

_Pure foolishness._

_It's been pointed out to me before that I have a dangerous habit of underestimating what mushi can do. This has gotten me, and others, into a few very serious situations._

_This was another one of those times. One would think I'd have learned my lesson by now._

* * *

Adashino woke to the sound of crackling wood, and the intense heat of a fire. When he shifted where he lay, he found himself buried beneath heavy winter blankets. Despite that, the man found that his limbs felt chilled.

_Odd_, he thought, _isn't it the middle of summer?_

Disoriented and confused, Adashino pushed the blankets off himself and sat up. Looking around, nothing about the room seemed familiar. Eventually he realized he wasn't in his own home. But his thoughts were sluggish, his memory a blur. He couldn't figure out where he was, or how he'd managed to get there.

"Sensei?" A familiar voice interrupted Adashino's confusion, and the doctor looked up to see Ashika entering the room. "You _are_ awake, thank goodness!" The fisherman hurried to Adashino's side, kneeling down and offering over a steaming cup of tea. "Drink this if you can. I'm no doctor, but I can tell you could do with the extra warmth."

Adashino took the cup gratefully, but waited to drink. He couldn't help but notice that Ashika was red-faced and sweating. Obviously the room was hotter than it needed to be, so why was he himself feeling so chilled? The reason was at the edge of his memory, just out of reach. "Ashika-san... It might be strange to ask, but could you...maybe explain why I'm here?"

Ashika looked genuinely confused. "You don't remember?"

Adashino shook his head. "Not clearly, no."

"Well... You were just wandering around outside, on the path from your house. You didn't answer when I called out, so I went over and..." The fisherman scratched at the back of his head, unsure of the whole incident. Even though he'd seen it with his own eyes, it sounded crazy. "You were freezing, sensei. Cold to the touch, blue lips and everything. I'll be damned if I could tell you why."

Adashino's eyes narrowed thoughtfully, and he frowned. Things were beginning to come back. He could remember being in his home, and he vaguely recalled going into the rear guest room. And something about Ginko... "That's it? No one else was there, or anything?"

"No. I tell you, it was strange. Middle of summer and you're outside freezing to death. But the missus and I got you set right, thank goodness." Ashika gestured to to the cup that Adashino held. "Go on, sensei, drink your tea. We'll figure things out when you're fit."

* * *

Inside the doctor's house, frost was forming on the walls, the floor, creeping over the ceiling. Anywhere that shadows touched, the air was chilled. The mushi that now wore Ginko's face moved through the hallways like a creature stalking prey. It examined Adashino's belongings, and stared out the windows at a world vastly different from its own. Like an inventory of language, the mushi pulled words from Ginko's memory, naming everything it saw. Books, bed, haori, inkstone. Anything it saw, there seemed to be a word it could learn.

Slowly, it built it's knowledge. Slowly, it was becoming something more than just a creature of instinct.

* * *

Hours later, Adashino was finally feeling warm. Ashika was able to put out the fire, and opened a few doors to let in the sea breeze. Adashino felt a little guilty that the fisherman had to suffer through the heat, but he was grateful that the man had gone through so much trouble for him. The people here were were truly good-hearted folks.

Adashino was also able to recall the events that had brought him to this situation. It was a slow process, but his memory eventually returned. He told Ashika about how Ginko had seemingly woken up, and about how something else was now living within the body of the mushi-shi. He explained how his own foolish actions had gotten him into trouble, and that the freezing cold was a result of coming in contact with the mushi. But what Adashino was still unable to remember was how he had managed to get away, or how he had ended up on the path leading down to the village. In the guest room, he had felt with certainty that that was the end for him, that he had made a fatal mistake. But if the mushi had meant to kill him, wouldn't it have done so? The whole thing was a bit too much to handle.

Now he and Ashika sat together, contemplating what should be done next. Adashino sipped at a second cup of tea, and Ashika rubbed thoughtfully at the stubble on his chin.

"Well," the fisherman began, "We obviously can't just let this problem be. Whatever that thing is, it's dangerous. If it decides to leave your house, there's no telling what will happen."

Adashino nodded his agreement, but no solutions came to mind. This was Ginko's area of expertise, not his. Without the mushi-shi there to give advice, Adashino found himself at a loss. "...There must be some way we can kill it, or make it leave. Something. Ginko always knew of ways to make a mushi leave a host. If this thing has some kind of weakness, then maybe..."

"Finding that is going to be a problem though, don't you think?" Ashika shook his head, scratched at his chin a bit more. "If getting too close is dangerous, how are we going to know if it has a weakness or not? The missus and I were lucky we got to you the first time, sensei. I don't want you to get yourself into that situation again."

The doctor stared down at his tea, thinking hard. His reflection frowned back up at him from the green liquid.

"We'll just have to find a way."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hello. After a couple years, I'm finally making some headway with this fiction. Some small changes have been made to the previous chapters, so please feel free to read them again. Also, I've added the chapter titles in English, in case anyone was curious about their meanings. Thank you all for the reviews and watches, and thank you for being patient with me and urging me to continue the story. There's more to come, so hopefully this somewhat uneventful chapter will hold you over until chapter 6 is ready. Thank you all again, and please enjoy.


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